Bring Me to Life
by roseangel013
Summary: She doesn't know what she did to attract their attention the way she did, but now they are after her and are willing to do whatever it takes to get her back. I suck at dramatic summaries, but this is a serial killer AU and it will have more than the three characters listed, they're just the most important.
1. Run

**A/N: This is a story that has been running through my head for the past couple months. I started writing it in April or May and haven't touched on it very much since then for too many reasons that I am** _ **so**_ **not getting into right now. Anyways… I have been reading a lot of Supernatural fan fics lately, specifically serial killer AUs. Those just fascinate me for some odd reason. Just one more thing to add to the long list of problems I have. So this is going to be one of those serial killer AUs. I can't promise a regularly scheduled update, not like a normally do, because I plan on focusing more on Money Doesn't Buy Dignity, Together, and another new fic I'm writing. Thought I'd let y'all know and I hope you enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own anything Supernatural related, except whatever OC I place in the story,**

Cats and Mouse

Prologue

She ran down the dark, deserted street; the only audible sound over the rain that continuously beat down hard on her was her heavy panting and wet, sloshy footsteps that she couldn't distinguish from her own or his, though the rain was more of an ice/snow mix, and covered the ground and street. She had no shoes on, so that might have narrowed down who the sounds were coming from.

The rain also made it seemingly impossible for her to tell how close or far away those running footsteps really were from her. She was afraid to look back to check, thinking that if she kept straight ahead, the more distance she could mentally put between them. He shouldn't have been close due to the trap she set for him a while back. She had been running for so long, or maybe it wasn't very long at all. She didn't know anymore. Though she did know she couldn't keep running for very much longer. With no shoes and barely any energy, she would have to find some place to hide, and soon.

A full grown, more like overgrown, athletic, extremely well built man like him would definitely catch up with her eventually. Especially with how tired she was getting. But being chased by him was way better than being chased by the other one who he was with.

He might not have been as big as the one currently chasing her, but he was quicker and more agile. If he had been the one chasing her from the jump, he would have definitely caught up with her by now. Point was, she needed to find somewhere to hide, and fast.

She turned a corner and slid on some of the sludge and ice on the sidewalk, letting out a quick, startled cry. Catching herself on her hands before she face planted into the muddy, icy, polluted concoction, she groaned in frustration as her body shook from the cold and sudden weight and pressure shift from her feet to her hands. She carefully shifted back from her hands to the balls of her feet, remaining in a crouched position. She inspected her hands and saw various cuts, some of which were bleeding slightly.

One more injury to add to the ever growing amount littering her body. She looked around at her surroundings again for anywhere she could hide, knowing that her body had had enough and needed to break, even if only for a moment. She spotted an alley just ahead of her, just on the right, and figured that she could run through and over to the next street and hopefully flag someone down. She hadn't seen anyone on the street she was on the whole time she had been running. She figured it was the part of town that closed up and was vacant of any people the same time every night.

She didn't waste any more time as she shot up and headed straight for the opening between the two buildings, but froze when she saw it was a dead end. The only thing there was a trash bin up against the wall furthest from her. It must have belonged to the building next door, seeing as though the only foot in the alley was right next to it. She knew the place was closed and that no one was there even though the street light above the door was on, so there was no use in wasting time and energy banging on the door.

There were also boxes directly in front of the door that were probably left there by some homeless guy. None of the things there were of any use to her and she knew she couldn't go any further. The chances of getting caught were too high. Not to mention the fact that whatever drugs they had injected into her system before she got away were slowly beginning to take their effect.

The trash bin up against the far wall began to blur in and out of focus and spin, causing vertigo to take her over. She stumbled to the side in her daze, and ended up stepping on a broken beer bottle, a large shard of glass lodging itself deep into her foot.

She bit her lip, to the point where the bitter, irony tang of blood slid across her tongue, in order to suppress a pained cry that wanted so desperately to worm its way past her lips. The fact that she had no idea where the giant man was made her more adamant at keeping quiet.

When she almost fell back into the wall closest to herm she didn't feel the rough, scratchy sensation of the brick buildings surrounding her. Instead, what she felt was cold, hard metal bars pressing into her back. The girl turned and realized she had fallen into a set of stairs leading up to a fire escape. She hadn't even seen the metal contraption when she ran into the small space, being so out of it when she did.

Her observation skills were still honed in on his footsteps, which were not far from her when she concentrated. At this, she didn't waste another second as she completely turned around and began her ascent up the metal ladder. She tried not to make an effort out of using her right foot, not wanting to lodge the glass any further in than it already was. The pain was phenomenal, but her will to survive was stronger than her need to rest, effectively numbing the pain to something bearable.

Once she arrived at the height of the metal contraception, she pulled the ladder up as high as it would go and slip underneath the safety rail and crawled into the farthest, darkest corner underneath a windowsill.

She attempted to open the window, but it appeared to have been locked. There was a hole in the glass in the corner closest to her where it looked like someone tried to break in, or out, and she stuck her hand through to the bend of her elbow, but the window was too wide and her arm couldn't reach the latch in the center. When she tried to pull her arm out, she realized that her plan wasn't very smart because as she struggled to get it out, the glass began to dig into her skin, so when her arm was all the way out, there was a long, gaping cut going up her forearm down to her wrist.

She clutched it to her arm to herself, trying to stop the bleeding as much as she could, and realized a few moments later that her slight misfortune was actually a blessing because the man chose that moment to turn the corner into the alleyway.

He stepped farther into the space until he was standing directly underneath the fire escape. The girl put the hand not covered in blood over her mouth to keep her panting and whimpers unheard.

The tall man had a gun in his hands that he would periodically squeeze the handle of, almost like a nervous tick. He walked over to the only door in the alley and jiggled the handle, soon realizing the place was closed and locked up tight, much like the girl assumed it was.

He went over to the trash bin, inspecting it to see if she had climbed inside. He was quick to open the lid, and groaned in disgust at the repulsive odor emitting from the bins contents. Rats, maggots, and roaches squirmed their way through any organic materials and the girl would have hurled at the sight if she wasn't sure the man below would find her.

There was a sudden warm, wet sensation on her left foot. She brushed it off as just rain or blood from her right foot, until it began to _scurry_ farther up her leg, causing her to cry out and fling whatever it was into the boxes below. That caught the man's attention as he turned around to lock back to the rest of the alley and back out to the street. His eyes were calculative and searching; his breathing mute to his own ears as he tried to locate the source of the sound.

He walked back under the fire escape and over to the boxes. Crouching down, he looked over the wet, soggy cardboard before they moved and he pulled them aside and five rats ran out and past him, the movement not seeming to faze him in the slightest.

He was about to stand back up and walk out of the alley, before a little red speck caught his attention. The closer he looked, the more of them there were. He dabbed his index and middle fingers in a particularly large puddle and brought them closer into the light of his flashlight in order to better inspect.

The girl had to squeeze her eyes shut when the man brought his blood stained fingers to his lips, his tongue slipping past to lick up the crimson liquid. He pushed the fingers farther into his mouth and his eyes seemed to slide closed on their own accord as he let out a euphoric moan of pleasure. She thought she was going to be sick when he repeated the action by gathering more of the blood that had fallen down from her injuries.

"Sammy," a voice called from the mouth of the alley. When the girl looked up from her foot, she saw the other man who had been working with the one below her.

"Mm," he moaned a final time as he pulled his fingers out of his mouth in order to speak. "This is her blood Dean, I'd know it anywhere. She's hurt, but I don't know where she is," Sammy groaned, a mix between pain and ecstasy. "I need more D."

Dean walked farther into the small space until he was standing directly above Sammy and directly beneath the girl.

"I know little brother, and we'll find her. In the meantime, I need to get you out of this rain before you catch pneumonia. My job to watch after you. Come on," Dean helped Sam up and out of the alley to the onyx black car parked directly in front of the entrance.

Both men got in the car–Sam still had a blissed out look on his face, his mouth slightly agape as his eyes, pupils dilated to the point where his hazel irises were almost nonexistent, ran over the small, disgusting hole between the two buildings, searching once more for his prey –and drove away, the roar of the car's engine fading out the farther away they drove.

The girl let out a noise that was a mix between a sigh and a chocked off sob. She was so close to being caught, and she knew that if they did see her, she wouldn't have had the energy to fight or run. Now, she might actually live to see sunrise. That is, if she didn't bleed to death first.

She cautiously made her way back down the fire escape after having to try numerous times to get the thing to go back down, her hands barely holding on due to the bars being frigid and slippery. She noticed that is wasn't only frozen water and ice, because ice wasn't red.

Between the gash in her foot, on her arm, and all the other cuts and incisions the men, _brothers_ , inflicted upon her body, she was losing more blood than previously anticipated. She was losing enough to get on the ladder and the ground beneath it.

It had already seeped through the once pure white dress that clung to her body, something the two men had put her in, the other one saying that she reminded him of someone he once knew who looked beautiful in white. The liquid covered her arms legs, smeared there from when she had fallen into the wall and huddled underneath the windowsill in order to be as small as possible to not be seen by either brother, holding her arm close to her body to try and stop the bleeding.

Now when she swayed from dizziness, she was unsure whether it was from the drugs in her system or blood loss. Did the drugs even work now that she had lost so much blood?

She stumbled towards the mouth of the alleyway, knowing that if she were to stop or fall she would not be able to get back up. She needed to keep going.

Soon, the sidewalk came back into view and she could see the traffic light at the corner, continuing on from green to yellow to red even though there were no cars coming from either direction.

Her legs were beginning to wobble and shake beneath her with every step she took, to the point where they could no longer support her at all. She fell to the ground and lie on her side, unable to stand or even think about standing, as she thought she wouldn't be.

She never figured she would die like this, but then again, who imagines how they will one day die? No one knows and things happen every day that make you question how it will all end for you when your time comes.

She tried to keep her eyes open for as long as she could, though her body protested, only wanting her to give in and let unconsciousness claim her as its own.

But something caught her attention, keeping her awake, even if only for a little while longer. It was a voice, a man's voice, and at first she thought it was one of the brothers coming back for her. The thought alone made her struggle to get up so she could run again with energy she didn't have, and her limbs proved that as they would not cooperate with the message her brain was attempting to send. She was just too tired.

But the closer the voice got to her, the more worried it sounded. It was gruff, but not as deep and commanding as the brothers. There was also a bright white light shining in her face, which was turned in the direction both voices were coming from. The light hurt her eyes and all she wanted was for the man to go away and take the light with him.

"No no, darlin'. You need to stay awake." The man's voice spoke softly to her. "Ellen, help me get her into the back."

It wasn't until a woman came into view that the girl realized she was even there. Her face was worried, but the girl thought she was beautiful with her long brown hair and warm eyes. Though the girl was slightly freaked out when the two came closer to her, the warmth in the woman's eyes told her she was safe.

"Get her other side," The man said.

"I got her." The woman, _Ellen_ , replied as the two lifted the girl off the ground. Ellen's voice was comforting to the girl as well. It lulled her into unconsciousness once she was placed down on a soft surface.

The last thing the girl heard before the blessed darkness consumed her was the panicked voices of her saviors.

 **A/N: Like I said up top, I am working on a couple of things right now, so don't get upset if the posts for this are infrequent. Though this is something that I think is going to be fun because Supernatural serial killer AUs are getting to me right now. I just love them. I'm already working on the next part, so we'll see when this is updated. OK, so R &R. I really want to know what y'all think, as always. Thanks all!**


	2. Wake Up for Me

**A/N: Sorry, but this chapter is kinda short. Actually both this story and Cats and Mouse are going to have some short chapters. Not for the fact that I can't write, but because they came from the same idea, so I'm trying to make sure they don't clash, but I also want you guys to stay intrigued, so it works in all of our favor.**

Chapter 2: Wake Up for Me

Waking up wasn't the hard part for her. Waking up meant she could escape the nightmares, even if only for the short amount of time during sleep times. Now though, the fact that she had no idea where she was or even how she got there was exceedingly unsettling.

The room was white and had a clinical smell to it. There were two doors in the room, though both were closed, she assumed one led to the rest of the establishment. There was also a small window next to her bed; the blinds were closed, but judging by the lack of light shining through, it was night time.

Besides her barely audible breathing, the only other sounds in the room were those of a machine beeping next to her bed and another giving a low hum; it wasn't until she looked over that she even noticed the machines around her.

There were many different cords and tubes in her arms, some with patches connecting to her bare skin and others with what looked like needles. The parts of her skin that weren't covered in tubes and clothing were covered in white bandages. There were a few red spots on the ones covering her arms, but they were mostly clean otherwise.

The girl sat up on the bed, a small whimper breaking past her lips as she moved. She moved the blanket covering her legs out of the way and was met with a thick gauze wrapped around her ankle going down to cover entire foot, only leaving the first knuckle to the tips of her toes.

The more she truly evaluated herself, the more white gauze she saw. The ones on her foot and wrists were the most visible, though she had a few small bandages there as well.

She wasn't ignorant, she knew she was in a hospital, but that didn't make her any less curious, and moreover, nervous about how she got there.

Almost as if on cue, the door on the wall directly across from the window on her right opened and the girl was met with a man with brown hair, similar to her own, that curled down towards his ears. He wore a set of bright white shoes with his seafoam green scrubs; a tired look adoring his face.

He walked in with his head down, staring at a clipboard in his hand. The sound of the pen scribbling something on the paper was audible from her place on the bed, the new sound causing her right ear to twitch.

When the man looked over at the bed, he seemed genuinely surprised to see her awake. Though when their eyes met, his bright green ones grew warmer and a smile spread across his lips. Something about the color of his eyes reminded her of someone, though they were a bit off, and this caused something in her to relax slightly.

"Looks like someone is finally awake," he said as he made his way towards the end on the bed.

She flinched away from him when he attempted to grab the arm with the gauze wrapped heavily around it. The action was so abrupt and violent that it caused her to pull the needle in her previously uninjured arm slightly under her skin, causing the sharp object to rip a long, paper thin line down her arm; a light sheen of blood seeping through the opening.

Along with the new opening going down the side of her previously uninjured arm, the stitches on her other arm were ripped, causing the gauze wrapped around that arm to become soiled in crimson liquid to the point where it began to drip off onto the white linen of the bed.

"Hey, hey, hey," The man attempted to grab her before she fell off the bed, the action causing everything to fall down with her, but she let out a loud whimper and recoiled further into the side of the bed, her blood continuing to stain everything she touched.

It was then that he finally got the message.

"Alright, okay," The man put his hands up, palms outward as he took a few steps away from the bed and the scared, injured girl.

She didn't move any closer or further away from the man once he was a safe enough distance away for her to relax her muscles on the slightest bit; the uncertainty on whether or not he was going to make another move to touch her kept them more so than not. The fact that she didn't know where she was or how she got there was bothering her to the point of anxiety; the fact that she was alone, to the point of fear.

The girl's breathing began to speed up, as well as the beeping of the heart monitor next to the bed. At this, the man spoke again, though this time calm and soft.

"Hey sugar cube," his voice was as calming and comforting as he could make it as though he were talking to a frightened animal or small child, and in a way he was. This girl couldn't be any older than 15 or 16. "My name is Gabriel, but you can call me Gabe if you like." He tried a light smile at her as to not scare her further. "Can you tell me yours?"

She didn't even look up at him when he spoke. She actually didn't realize he had spoken. Her breathing seemed to come out faster the longer she sat there, and lost more and more blood at the same time.

Gabriel opened his mouth to say something else, but closed it upon a thought and turned and walked back out the door, leaving the girl alone once more.

Now that she was alone again, with the man in scrubs gone, she actually felt more nervous than before. Having a potential threat gone should have made her feel better – _safer._ But the longer she was alone, the more scared she became, to the point where tears spilled from her eyes and she couldn't breathe.

After a few more moments of lonely silence, the door opened again and two men walked. One of them from before and the other foreign.

The new man wore a black suit and blue that matched perfectly underneath his white lab coat. His hair was jet black and slightly tousled almost as if he were recently lying his head down. His ocean blue eyes showed nothing short of concern and were focused solely on her.

Much like the other man _–Gabriel had he said?_ –this new man had eyes that seemed familiar, even more comforting than Gabriel's.

 _A woman with long blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes that matched the man's exactly flashed before her eyes. She had a dazzling smile; her arms were warm and comforting as they wrapped themselves around the girl's small body. She was held close to her chest and if the girl listened hard enough, she could hear the woman's heartbeat, and it was the most soothing sound she had ever heard._

" _My beautiful baby girl," the woman said and that voice definitely took the girl's number one spot on the most soothing sounds. She could listen to that voice forever._

"Miss! Miss!"

The girl blinked her eyes a few times, and she was back in the white room with the two men, who were looking very worried now, but she couldn't, for life of her, figure out why.

She felt dizzy all of a sudden and the world began to tilt. The last thing she saw before she passed out once more was the rushing forms of the men and the beautiful woman smiling behind them.

* * *

When she awoke for the second time, she wasn't as keen to as the first time. She had been experiencing a rare, dreamless sleep. One without nightmares of men with angry expressions, hurtful words, or wielding heavy, punishing objects.

She didn't want to open her eyes, but it appeared sleep was done with her for the time being.

One of the first things she noticed about her surroundings when she woke up was that the room she was in was no longer shrouded in darkness, with a single light source to illuminate the space. It was light now, though it was dim.

She knew it was cloudy, and not only that, but raining as well. She didn't really know why, but it gave her the urge to run through the water like a child would at a beach. She wanted to splash in the puddles created in the sidewalk and grass.

The sounds of the rain hitting the window and roof were seemingly familiar and comforting to her; made her feel safe, as though no one could harm her. Though that didn't stop certain evils from getting through her safe guard.

She took a deep breath, not wanting to think about that or let those negative emotions overwhelm her. As she did so, she noticed someone else in the room with her, sitting in a recliner in the corner next to the bed she was in; she hadn't even noticed it until now.

The person in the chair was a woman with dirty blonde hair, wearing a red jacket and black jeans; she looked slightly older than the girl in the bed. She was asleep, though the dark circles underneath her eyes proved she hadn't been for long, caused more than likely by a lack of sleep, but the rest of her body language was very lax.

The girl wanted to wake her up to see if she knew who she was, but before she could, the door opened.

A woman with hair that was slightly darker than the girl's in the chair came through, her eyes a warm shade of green. When she looked up at the bed and found the girl to be awake, any and all of the previous stress on her face vanished.

"Well goof morning, sweet pea," her voice was just as soft as her eyes, and oddly familiar, though the girl couldn't place where she had heard it.

Almost as if she knew what the girl was thinking, the woman answered. "My name is Ellen. My husband and I found you out in the middle of the street a few nights ago and brought you to the hospital."

Upon hearing this, the girl stared to remember.

 _She had been running away from those men–_ brothers right? _She didn't remember how she got with them, let alone why. All she knew was that she woke up with her arms tied above her head to a wooden headboard of some motel._

 _She was alone at the time and couldn't think straight, she felt really tired, but something told her she needed to get out. NOW._

 _She had look up at her hands and saw chaffing around her wrists from all her squirming. The knots were tired too tight for her to be able to simply wiggle her way out of them. The brothers must have known what they were doing when they tied them._

"I'm gonna go get the doctor and tell him your awake," Ellen's voice snapped her back into the present. She blinked a couple times before nodding when she realized Ellen was waiting for a response of some kind; she hadn't even realized she had been subconsciously rubbing her wrists over the white bandages, were the dark marks were still very much so visible around the edges.

As the door clicked shut behind Ellen, the girl in the chair began to stir.

"You're awake," she seemed just as surprised as the doctor from a couple nights ago when she spoke through her sleepy haze. She figured no one thought she was going to wake up anytime soon and didn't know how to feel about that. "How do you feel?" She asked after clearing her throat, sliding up so she could sit properly in the chair.

The girl blinked at her before shrugging her shoulders, the action causing a slight pain to run through her back. She tried to play off her wince with a sigh, but the other girl could see the pain in her eyes.

"Don't move too much," she cautioned. "You haven't seen yourself in a mirror yet, but you're pretty beat up."

She felt beat up. Like she had been hit by an eighteen-wheeler actually.

She looked up at the girl in the chair again with question in her eyes. The other girl must have understood because she answered. "My name is Joanna, but I go by Jo. I got here after you freaked out. The doctors told my parents that it would be best for you to wake up with someone at least close to your age in the hopes that you wouldn't have another panic attack."

Having Jo there was a bit more calming than waking up alone, but she was still a bit uneasy. She felt like something was missing. Something that could make her feel completely calm. Something she was used to having around _all the time_ , but she just couldn't figure out what that was.

"What's your name?" Jo asked after a small pause.

She looked up at Jo with sort of resigned looked on her face. One might almost say she looked… _guilty_. Jo on the other hand, simply didn't think she wanted to speak quite yet.

"You don't have to say anything yet if it makes you uncomfortable. Nobody will push you." Jo said, her voice calm and reassuring. At first, she lifted her arm in an attempt to give the brunette on the bed some comfort, but thought better of it upon remembering what her parents said the doctors told them about what happened a few nights ago.

"It's not that she doesn't want to answer your question Joanna," the doctor said as he walked back through the door, Ellen, Gabriel, and another man with brownish grey facial hair and a ball cap, that must have been Ellen's husband and Jo's father, following suit.

"She can't,"

 **A/N: R &R please.**


	3. Mute

**A/N: Happy New Year all! I wanted to get this out before the New Year, but a series of events prevented me from posting this last night. I know I said if I post again it would more than likely be shorter than the last time I posted, but I thought I would type this up as a Happy New Year to all my fans. I already had this written out, so it came before my writer's block overpowered me, along with the next chapter of Cats and Mouse and Together, so it might be a minute till I post the next chapter. I am just gonna let you get to it now, and tell you the rest at the bottom because it can wait.**

 **Enjoy…**

Chapter 3: Mute

"What do you mean 'she can't'?" Ellen asked as she moved past the men, moving over to her daughter on the opposite side of the room.

The brunette in the bed tensed as a bunch more– _foreign–_ peoplecame into the room, but upon seeing they were the same people from before, she relaxed slightly.

"Well, after she lost consciousness, we thought she might have a concussion or even some degree of brain damage due to her disoriented state." The doctor with comforting blue eyes explained.

He took a few steps closer to her and it took a lot of self-restraint on her part not to flinch away from him, knowing she wasn't in any real danger.

"And because she woke up way before we expected, so when she showed odd behavior when she did, it was more motivation to do so." Gabriel added, taking out a red, presumably cherry, lollipop and popping it into his mouth.

Bobby and Ellen looked on at the nurse, worry evident in their features; Jo held her mother's hand and squeezed it comfortingly, while the brunette on the bed stared cautiously at the doctor. The closer she inspected him, the more she realized he was wearing a name badge.

She couldn't really see it, having to lean in and squint a bit. She ended up subconsciously reaching out to grab the object; the doctor took a small step closer to her in order to allow her better access, though his step was slow as to not scare her any more than she already seemed to be. Though she was good at hiding it, he still noticed.

"Castiel Novak." He clarified when her brows knit together in confusion.

When she looked up at him, he had a small, kind smile on his face. She couldn't help but return the gesture, along with his eyes, he gave her exceptionally homey feeling.

"Have you ever heard of aphasia?" Castiel asked, his smile still firmly in place though his eyes held a sort of serious curiosity. "Shake your head yes or no?"

At this point everyone's attention was back on the doctor/patient duo.

The girl thought about it for a moment before shaking her head. She couldn't actually remember much of anything before waking up in that motel, and that scared her.

"What's aphasia?" Jo asked, looking back and forth between the two.

Castiel opened his mouth to speak, but Gabriel beat him to it, "Aphasia is a language disorder that impairs a person's ability to speak and/or process words properly, and in more severe cases even write and draw." He picked up the clipboard attached to the foot of the ben and handed it to Castiel.

The raven haired doctor flipped the papers attached to the flat object to a completely blank page before handing it and a pen to the girl, "Write your name and draw a face."

"We won't be able to tell how severe your case is until you do this." Gabriel explained at the confused look on everyone's faces. "If she can do this, we know it's not that serious, and the fact that she can understand what we're saying is a good sign as well."

"Try your best," Bobby encouraged from beside Ellen when the girl grew a nervous expression upon her face.

It wasn't that she was nervous about the test, she had tried talking to someone after she had escaped the motel room and they hadn't understood a word she had said, so she knew she couldn't speak. It was writing her name that was making her nervous.

She wasn't kidding earlier, she _really_ couldn't remember anything prior to waking up in that motel room. Any and all memories or thoughts from before eluded her. Including her name. She wasn't even sure she could draw a face.

The only things she knew came from her dreams or feelings _–like with the rain._ The man with the loud voice and foul breath who only showed her pain. The woman with beautiful, caring blue eyes that matched those of Castiel. But she didn't know who they were or even who she was.

The girl looked down at the paper and pen in front of her. It took her a while to get with the program and at least make an attempt at picking up the writing utensil. She thought it might be best to draw the face first, seeing that would be easiest.

 _At least is should be._

She carefully placed the tip of the pen to the clean sheet and attempt to draw a medium sized circle–something bit enough for a reasonable sized head. But when she went to move her hand, it began to shake uncontrollably. She grabbed her wrist in an attempt to steady it, but it didn't help much because no matter how tight she held on, she was unable to complete the circle. She ended up making some abstract shape with uneven sides both in length and size.

She looked up at Castiel for help, and he sighed before smiling down at her. "Agraphia. It can be a symptom. That's ok. Try writing your name."

At that, the girl shook her head, her long brown hair swaying with the movement.

"It's okay sweet pea. Just try," Ellen rested her hand on the girl's leg in a comforting gesture. The girl looked at her and returned her kind smile before looking over to Gabriel.

She put her hand to her throat and began to rub it furiously.

"Do you need water?" Bobby asked, looking at the table next to Jo, who picks up the cup and attempted to hand it to the girl.

She shook her head, tapping the side of it a few times.

"She's obviously trying to tell us something," Jo inquired, trying to decipher the message.

"Charades it is." Gabriel exclaimed excitedly, clapping his hands once in amusement, earning a half glare from Castiel.

"Ok, so, thinking?" Bobby tried.

The girl shook her head once more before nodding instead. She then attempted to write something. Though her hand wouldn't stop shaking, but she was determined to get her message out.

"M-E-M?" Ellen asked, looking back and forth from Castiel to Gabriel and back to the girl on the bed. "Are those your initials?

The girl shook her head once more, pointing again to her head.

"Mem? Memory?" Castiel tried.

The girl gave a bright smile, nodding happily.

"What about memory?" Ellen knelt beside the bed, staring intently at the girl.

She didn't know what else to do to answer the question, so she shrugged.

"You don't know?" Bobby asked in confusion.

Gabriel gave out a huff, "She doesn't remember."

"Doesn't remember what?"

"Anything," Castiel finished with a sigh. He looked over at the brunette for confirmation; she nodded. "That isn't good."

"I wouldn't think memory loss would be a good thing, Doc." Jo commented.

"It's not that," Castiel sighed again. "We can't figure out what degree or type of aphasia she has if she can't remember when it started."

"Not all types of aphasia are the same, so the treatments are all different. We can't treat her unless we know exactly what type she has." Gabriel added. He and Castiel shared a look before Castiel looked back at the brunette.

"Do you remember anything before that night, or just generally before you were found?"

The brunette took a minute to think through what was asked of her. That night was a general blur, though she did remember bits and pieces; anything before then still escaped her.

She couldn't tell them what she did remember for the simple fact that she couldn't _speak_ and she wasn't even sure she could remember where she ran from mostly because she didn't know where she currently was, so nothing she said would be useful, so she simply shook her head.

"That's odd. Short or long term amnesia isn't commonly associated with aphasia." Castiel murmured mostly to himself.

"Cas, on the x-ray, remember the dent in her skull? Near the frontal and parietal lobes?" Gabriel thought back to a few hours earlier when the two were looking for any signs of possible brain damage.

"Yes, but aphasia would be gradual, not immediate." The doctor immediately shot down the ideas.

"Not if it happened a long time ago. You saw how aged it looked; even if it was a few weeks ago, she couldn't have PPA." Gabriel tried placing both his hands on either side of the girl's legs on the bed, momentarily forgetting himself, the girl didn't seem as bothered by the closeness, going so far as leaning one of her legs lightly against his. "Or it could have been caused by PTSD–"

"I'm sorry, back track just a bit for the ones of us who didn't go to medical school," Jo interrupted the two who seemed to forget the presence of everyone else in the room. "What is PPA?"

Castiel looked to Gabriel again, thinking he would want to explain like last time, but the other man simply held out his hand in indication for the doctor to take the floor.

"PPA or Primary Progressive Aphasia is one of the rarer forms of aphasia, where a person gradually loses their ability to speak, write, or even read. More times than not it is also difficult for the sufferer to comprehend what they hear, but you don't seem to have that problem either because yours isn't as bad or you just haven't gotten to that stage yet."

Castiel directed the last part to the brunette on the bed, who draws her index finger across the page still in front of her as though she were reading imaginary words on the page.

"You can read too?" Gabriel asked with some surprise lacing his tone. "Cas, try the AA test, she might have two different kinds of aphasia."

"I didn't even think of that." It came out more as a revelation, as though it were some astonishing new idea as oppose to some unconsidered medical idea.

"AA stands for anomic aphasia which is basically when the sufferer can speak, but can't find the right words." Gabriel added, noticing the looks of confusion that once again adored everyone else's faces. "It isn't unheard of for a person to have symptoms of multiple types of aphasia. Not common, but certainly not unheard of."

"Can you tell us something simple, how you feel temperature or pain wise?" Doctor Novak asked simply.

"You said she couldn't speak. If she could tell you how she was feeling, wouldn't have done it by now?" Bobby shifted on his feet next to his wife and daughter looking skeptically at the doctor and nurse.

"She might be able to say small words or phrases; because she is suffering from amnesia, she can only be asked current questions, but we have to check first." Castiel explained, glancing up for a second before turning his attention back to the girl.

The brunette blinked a few times and swallowed nervously before opening her mouth.

"I-I…mmm craw-wled," she stuttered out, hoping she was somewhat legible.

"Crawled?" Jo looked at the girl as though she would say something more, but it became increasingly clear she wasn't going to say anymore. At least not without being prompted.

"People with anomic aphasia have difficulty finding words, making it harder for them to speak. She knows what she wants to say, her brain just isn't filtering it out right. It sounds right to her though." Gabriel let out a sad sigh, feeling bad for the girl.

Whatever happened to her wasn't her fault, but she had to deal with the consequences.

"Last thing, then we're done." Doctor Novak smiled, keeping his optimistic attitude for the girl, who nodded tiredly. "Think hard, can you tell me a name or phrase that pops into your head. Anything at all; you can use anything in the room to help you."

Once again, the girl took some time to glance around her room, now looking much smaller with so many people occupying the once empty space.

Ellen and Bobby had backed away from her bed and had begun discussing something in the far corner of the room, after the doctor and nurse began running their final test.

Whatever they were talking about must have been stressful because the two's body language was a bit tense, along with their harsh whispering.

She hoped whatever they were talking about wasn't about her. She didn't want to be a burden to her saviors. Not after all they had done for her.

Her gaze drifted farther over to Jo, who was looking at her with just as much patience and calm as Doctor Novak and Nurse Gabriel.

Something about Jo reminded her of someone. The woman from her…dream? Vision? She didn't really know. Maybe she was someone the girl knew before she lost her memory.

In her head, the woman had Jo's beautiful blonde hair and Castiel's stunning blue eyes. The image of the woman made her feel overwhelmingly…

"S-safe," She once again stuttered out, not breaking eye contact with the girl still sitting in the chair across from her.

"She got it!" Jo squealed excitedly; this caused the girl to smile as well. "Mom, Dad, she said something."

Ellen and Bobby seemed to come to a conclusion to their conversation and came back over to the bed.

"What did she say?" Ellen asked, placing her hand on the back of the chair, directly behind her daughter's head.

"Safe," The girl repeated, though this time it was much firmer than the first time, causing everyone to look at her in surprise.

"Wonder what made her choose that particular word." Gabriel murmured to Castiel, not necessarily intending for anyone else, let alone his patient, to hear him.

Though as a response the girl looked over at Jo and said her name, though it came out slightly choppy.

"I make you feel safe?" The blonde let out a light, shocked laugh.

The girl nodded before looking over at Ellen and Bobby, causing her smile to widen.

"We make you feel safe?" Bobby asked, connecting the dots in his head. It made sense, they did save her life and technically they were the only people she knew at the moment.

She nodded her head vigorously at that, her smile bright enough to rival the glare of the sun.

Ellen grew a look of pride at the revelation, the thanks showing brightly in the girl's greenish hazel orbs. She didn't need to speak in order to relay that message.

That one simple look was enough for both Ellen and Bobby to come to a conclusion.

"Doctor Novak, can we talk to you in the hall once you're done in here?" Ellen asked as the doctor scribbled something down on the girl's medical chart.

"Yes, I think we have everything we need anyway." He smiled back at the girl once more before walking to the door, Bobby and Ellen following behind.

Just as the trio walked out the room, a woman in a long sleeve, brown shirt and khaki pants–the uniform for the sheriff's department–came up to the door.

"Sheriff Mills," Doctor Novak greeted the woman with a light smile. "She is awake, but she has a language disorder that makes her unable to speak."

"Which means she can't tell us how she got out here and why." The sheriff sighed, exasperated.

"The fact that she has amnesia might also be a reason why she wouldn't be able to answer your questions." Gabriel commented as he came out of the room. "Just saying."

"What the hell happened to this girl?" The question was obviously rhetorical, but everyone wanted to know the answer.

They knew she was running from someone based on her injuries and the frightened state she was in when Bobby and Ellen found her.

Sheriff Mills had seen enough abuse cases in her time as both a deputy and sheriff. Though in this case, she didn't know if the child was a runaway or just scared and confused, and was abused along the way. She couldn't be any older than 15 or 16, so it couldn't be any more than one of the two with the latter mixed in somewhere.

"I had a deputy check out the area you found her in. The rain we got the past couple days washed away most of the snow and sludge, making it virtually impossible for us to determine which direction she was coming from let alone where she was headed. Though we are pretty sure it has to be somewhere close, I mean she couldn't have run all the way through town in this freezing weather without anyone seeing her. My guess is, wherever she came from, it was within a 5-10 mile radius from where she was found."

Bobby snorted. "That's not a small amount of area to check Sheriff. There are plenty of abandoned buildings, shops, motels, homes, and woods within that area."

"I'm aware of that Mr. Singer. I didn't say it would be easy finding anything." Sheriff Mills shot back.

"What is it that you're looking for exactly, Sheriff?" Ellen asked, getting between the two in hopes to lower the hostility level that had accumulated in the air.

Jody looked back down at Ellen, taking a deep breath in hopes to calm herself.

She, as well as the Singers, hadn't gotten much sleep in the past few days since the mystery girl's arrival. And because there was no ID found on her and she didn't know who she was, there wasn't much to go on, making everyone's jobs that much harder.

"We don't actually know yet. Anything at all that can tell us who she is, where she came from, and who was chasing her. I need to get a picture of her so we can put her in the system and run her facial recognition to see if she's in the missing person's record. Also, I'm going to send some of my deputies out to see if anyone has seen her in the area."

"She seemed pretty freaked out when we first came in, what happens if it turns out she's running from someone?" Gabriel through out, thinking back to the girl's reaction every time someone came into the room. "You can't leave her here, and they might go to the police station looking for her."

"That's actually something we wanted to talk with you about Sheriff," Ellen took a step towards the other woman. "What if my husband and I took her, just until we find out what's up with her? Then we'll go from there."

Jody took a moment to think about that. Gabriel was right, she couldn't stay in the hospital or go to the Sheriff's station, both logical first places to check if someone really was after her. She really couldn't stay at the station for two other reasons. First, they didn't know how long this process would take, so second, there wasn't anywhere for her to stay long term; Jody refused to put her in a cell like some criminal.

"She can stay with you guys at least until the investigation is over," Jody relented, causing Ellen to smile, "but I don't know how long it's gonna take, could be weeks. Are you sure you guys can handle a guest for that long?"

Ellen looked back at Bobby, who was smiling at his wife.

"I think we can handle that just fine."

 **A/N: So one thing to know about this and Cats and Mouse is that because they originated from the same idea, they will have similar plot twists. Not the same, but very similar. You'll understand once we reach that point. Also, aphasia is a real disorder, so most of this is going to be based off a real problem, though some of it is also made up. Wanted to let you know for anyone who knows or has heard of aphasia, just didn't want to confuse you.**

 **I really need you guys to tell me how you think it's going so far and if you think I messed up, because I don't have a beta for this story or Cats and Mouse, so I don't know if there are any errors. IF someone wants to volunteer to beta for me that would be amazing too, BTW.**


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